15 Places in Arizona That Feel Like Another Planet.

Did you know there's places in Arizona that feel like a whole nother planet? Today we're going to show you some of those places here in Arizona. Let's go to the top of the state. Here we are at The Wave. Located on the border with Utah and Arizona, The Wave sits in Coyote Buttes north area within the Paria Canyon of the Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. In order to get out here, you actually need a permit in order to hike around here. So apply ahead of time. You can't show up here and start hiking. I actually came down here to the Coyote Bluffs to go hiking up there and they told me I needed a permit. So that's why I'm reminding you of that. Now the unique thing about this has the orange red and these cream stripes that are made from the Navajo sandstones from million years of wind erosion creating these brilliant colors. Next up we're going to go across the Colorado River to the south side of the Grand Canyon. This is Grand Canyon West. There's many parts of the Grand Canyon so make sure when you're looking on the map you're looking for Grand Canyon West and this place is spectacular. Actually right down below here is where they have Havasupai Falls and Havasupai Creek. We're not going to show that in this video but that place is also otherworldly. But up here you have the Big Skywalk which is this horseshoe shaped glass sidewalk that extends 70 feet or 21 meters beyond the canyon's rim. It actually sits approximately 4,000 feet or 1,220 meters above the Colorado River giving the visitors this incredible sensation feeling like you're walking on air. It's actually only 10 feet wide as you go around the sidewalk and as you go around here you'll see they have other activities like zip lining and you'll notice the environment and the terrain it just feels like another planet. There's very limited vegetation just some shrubs on the ground but the way the terrain is set up it just doesn't feel like earth. Staying in northern Arizona we're here at Antelope Canyon located on the Navajo Nation. You also need a guided tour to get down here it's just outside of Page Arizona and you can only visit with an authorized Navajo guide but the canyon was formed millions of years ago from flash floods so as you go around here you'll notice in the Grand Canyon area lots of erosion has taken place in this part of the world. There must have been some serious snowmelt coming off the Rockies and going to another place where a lot of erosion took place was here in Monument Valley. They say it's an ancient sea although we cannot confirm or deny because we weren't here when there was an ancient sea. One of the main reasons scientists know this was a seabed is because of the fossils they found here like marine animal shells. Also you have these iconic buttes and mesas that are made of sandstone deposits between about 200 to 300 million years ago during what is called the Permian period and they were covered by these shallow inland seas, coastal plains, river systems and now it's just a vast desert and many Hollywood films have been filmed out here because there's not too many places on planet earth that look like this. That's why we're saying this looks like another planet out here. And just down the road is the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. As you can see all of these places we have just shown you are in northern Arizona just below southern Utah. I would say that's one of the most incredible places to explore in America, in particular the American Southwest. Northern Arizona from the Grand Canyon up into southern Utah there's a lot to see in this region that's very exotic. The Vermilion Cliffs is another beautiful place. As you're going towards the north part of the Grand Canyon you'll see the Vermilion Cliffs on the right side of the road and you just look at them and you're like wow that is absolutely amazing. Now I just can't get over the amount of erosion that had to take place. I mean literally that's what I'm always thinking about when I'm up here. I'm like to carve out the Grand Canyon, to carve out these cliffs, all these beautiful sandstone areas. I'm just amazed when I'm up here. And probably the most famous place in Arizona is Sedona known for its red rock formations of sandstone just layered on top of each other. They say the red color comes from iron oxide or rust which makes the sand grains that red color. It sits at an elevation of about 4,300 feet. Places up here like Cathedral Rock or the many hikes through the hills just spectacular up here. Some people even say that there's an energy vortex here and some visitors believe they have unique spiritual or healing energy experiences here. Although there's no scientific evidence to support any of this but some people believe it. Now we're here at Fossil Creek. This is like a desert oasis. It's essentially a very beautiful aquamarine colored water stream that has waterfalls as it cascades down from the mountains. You know the thing about being up in this area in the daytime you have these natural beautiful places but at nighttime the area takes on a whole world of its own because as you look up into the heavens towards the stars you see so many stars in northern Arizona including in this area Fossil Creek and Sedona. So it really creates this sensory overload but this place is like a water world. We made a full video coming up here if you guys haven't already seen it just go onto our home page and binge watch our videos. We made so many road trip videos and off-roading just getting out there doing some hikes. Hopefully you guys enjoy those. That's why I'm encouraging you guys to explore our video catalog. Now we're actually here at Painted Desert another place we did a specific video for you all but the Painted Desert as you go around here you're like what the heck another one of these great places. I mean this is where you really see the years of erosion because the different mineral deposits at each layer just varies over time and when I was in the Painted Desert hiking around I was just like another place that just blew my mind and you have to realize it's not just one part of northern Arizona whether you're in the Grand Canyon or Coyote Bluffs Monument Valley. I mean there's so many specific areas to explore like the Petrified Forest National Park that's right next to the Painted Desert. Out here you'll see old trees that have turned into rocks. They're literally fossilized trees and they even have these different mineral deposits that give it this color of a jasper or something like that. It's just really amazing to see all of the fossils. Scientists there at the park said that this part of Arizona used to be at the same latitude and longitude of what is now Costa Rica so at that time it was a swampland forest and I mean as we show you around this park and you're looking at the landscape and the scenery in your mind you're like wow that doesn't really look like planet earth because planet earth is known for lush forests and trees and then just down the road from here on the way towards Flagstaff you have Meteor Crater. This is a place where they say a large meteor came crashing down into the earth and created a mini extinction event so the indigenous people who were living out here whether they were the Sonagua or people before the Sonagua they would have been impacted by this meteor strike. It's about a mile in circumference. They do have a visitor center. This is privately owned. It's not by the government but just a crazy place to be I'll tell you that. Now we're actually headed up to Canyon de Chelly. This is nearby Monument Valley, the Four Corners area. It is on the Navajo Nation, another one of those places you need a special permit or a local tour guide to take you inside but this place here is really special but it's not as famous as it could be just because it is on the reservation and they don't really want to make it a famous place but really for those who know it is a hidden gem for sure. Even though you do need a permit to go inside you can still go around the top of the canyon and there are certain overlooks and places that you can explore. It's just getting inside the actual canyon into the otherworldly type environment you would need that permit. Now if you're one of the types of people who like to sit back relax and watch the world go by as you see beautiful places you can actually do the Verde Canyon Railroad which will take you through the Red Rocks just here at the base of the Mogollon Rim in the Verde Valley area and you can sit back and just see how beautiful Arizona is and just see a unique part of the planet and right here it might not be the most otherworldly kind of place but it's still amazing. This is in an area called Clarkdale. It's about 25 miles southwest of Sedona. The excursion takes about four hours and it goes along 40 miles of round trip scenery around the Verde Valley. Best time to do this would be anytime but summer but if you come here during the fall or the autumn you can get different types of foliage. Obviously in autumn around November you're going to get the best colors and then out here in the northwestern part of the state is a modern marvel even though the Hoover Dam is almost 100 years old. This place is amazing up here just because the way Lake Mead was created it's a huge reservoir and they built this dam with so much concrete that it could build a highway from Phoenix to New York. That's how much concrete went into pouring this massive reservoir's dam. They said one day they might even consider breaking the dam and letting the Colorado run through. That's not going to happen anytime soon but there are these ideas and concepts out there about breaking the Glen Canyon Dam or the Hoover Dam but as of now you can go out here and explore and you can even walk across the Hoover Dam and just be like wow this place is crazy just because the ravine. I mean anytime you go to a dam in Arizona you're usually impressed and I will say just the way the rock formations are out here it is otherworldly. I mean if you drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas you'll definitely go right through the Hoover Dam area. In case you're wondering why they built this dam it's for your drinking water, for your potable water, for your showers, for your toilets. This is where the water comes from. The reservoir is here in places like the Hoover Dam. Out in central Arizona there's some other beautiful hikes nearby Fossil Creek like the Waterwheel. We showed you guys this one in the other video that we did about the Waterworld. Again you would go onto the home page and watch those videos if you wanted to see places like this more in detail but the Waterwheel is really cool. It might not be the most otherworldly place although when you're out here you will think I've never seen too many places like this in the world because Arizona is just so unique. And just down the way is another awe-inspiring place. It's called the Waterfall here at the Tonto Natural Bridge. So when you go out here you'll notice there's a huge bridge that goes over this creek here and this is the largest travertine bridge in the world. But you go here and you walk around you're like wow this is amazing. You can actually go down there to the creek look up and just kind of marvel at it. Once you're down there for 15 minutes then you come back up but it's again another one of these very unique places that you'll find right here in the great state of Arizona. And another really incredible place up here in northern Arizona is Horseshoe Bend. This is kind of nearby the Antelope Canyon in the Page area but when you go up there and you look down at the river that bends right here in the shape of a horseshoe you look at it you're just like this is crazy. I mean it's part of the Grand Canyon as it kind of begins just after Lake Powell's Glen Canyon Dam but it's really special up here whether you're down below in the Colorado or if you're up above looking down just a super cool place. But as you can see as we've gone around Arizona showing you some incredibly unique landscapes whether you're living in Arizona or someone who lives outside you can see Arizona is a very special place. I always hear someone say oh Arizona is so boring and I think to myself well have you ever gone around Arizona because these are just the otherworldly places that's not even including the normal places that are spectacular that we have here in the state. And as always we love to hear from our community and our followers because when you guys make video recommendations whether it be going on a road trip or going to a specific part of the state we do our best to get out there and bring those videos to you so let us know in the comments where you guys want us to go and we'll try and get down there and make that video. We'll see you guys on the next one from Best Road Trips in Arizona. Click right here!